I know, I know. It's been forever. I apologize. But hey! Look at this! Smith and Watson, Episode 1, is finally complete! :D
I've just been really uninspired lately, and I can't write for beans when I don't feel like writing at all. As I figured you guys perferred Quality over Quantity, I decided to wait for a muse.
I've actually got the flu too, but I've been dying to write something, so yeah.
Please don't be mad at me! I love all of you!
"Yes." John didn't see a point in lying.
The Doctor looked horrified, angry, and scared all at once. The grip on John's elbow grew painfully tight, and after several seconds the Doctor finally managed to breathe a "But why?"
"Because I'm broken, and nothing can fix me. If it wasn't her, than I would've thrown myself of St. Barts, or put a bullet in my brain, or jumped onto the Underground's track. I'm a man without a purpose, and I've got a life not worth living." With every word the Doctor seemed to grow paler, and John was silent. John stared at him, waiting; but the Doctor kept his gaze averted.
"What if-" The Doctor stopped suddenly and swallowed, "Want to come with me?"
John arched a brow, "I am with you."
"No, I mean-" He sighed, "Come with me. Travel with me. To the end of the universe and time and space and then back again."
John watched him.
"Adventures all the time, people to save, and so many different things to do! But you can't do that. You have to promise, right now, that you won't ever just stop." The Doctor was practically imploring John; and honestly, maybe that's all John needed.
Someone to promise everything, mean nothing, and make unreasonable demands.
John snorted, "Yeah, okay."
"Okay?" The Doctor persisted. "Okay what?"
"Promise, okay? I promise."
The Doctor smiled as he clapped John on the shoulder and gave it a good squeeze, "Okay." He breathed, "Okay. Good." Then John smiled too.
xxx
John opened the door and stepped out of the closet, the Doctor following behind. Almost immediately they heard noises to their right.
They had stepped out right in front of a Slab, who apparently, was still searching for them.
The Doctor suddenly wrenched forward, grabbing John by his hand, and shouted 'Run!' before leading the take off down the hall.
John kept up easily, although at one point he had to hurdle a gurney, something which slowed him down a tad (and impressed the Doctor. He hadn't thought John had it in him). They seemed to be running in circles, and then they were speeding down a stairwell and right into a narrow barely used hall. The Slab wasn't far behind, but once they'd made it in the X-Ray room, the Doctor whipped out his Sonic Screwdriver and locked the door.
"We haven't lost him." John warned as he allowed the Doctor to lead him to the X-Ray controls.
"I know." He said hurriedly, "You know how to work this?"
"Yeah, why?" John nodded, hand on hips.
"When I tell you, press the button!" And then the Doctor had suddenly materialized in front of the X-Ray scope and was fiddling with it. The Slab was already going at the door, breaking it down would only be a matter of time, and John didn't see how X-rays were going to do anything, but then, he wasn't the genius in the room either.
Then with a loud bang, the door splintered, the Doctor finished, and all went hell.
John didn't know in what order anything happened, but suddenly the Doctor was yelling 'Now!' and the Slab was running in, and John had slammed his palm into the button, and then there was a flashing, and a smell of burning flesh, and a sound of something akin to a dishwasher; and John had felt the heat of a fire, and he went temporarily blind-!
All in all, very stressful, and by the time it had ended, John was very confused. He peeked out from behind the glass window and saw the Slab lying inert on the floor. Seemingly harmless, but one could never be too sure.
"What did you do?" John queried the Doctor, who was standing a short ways away.
"Increased the radiation by five thousand percent." The Doctor licked his lips, his whole body tingling with the feeling of success, "Killed him dead." He pronounced confidently. John was less sure, but left the safety of the room anyway.
"Won't that kill you, or does that not affect you? What with you being an alien an all?" John looked to the Doctor curiously.
"Nah, it's only radiation." He shook his head, "We used to play with roentgen bricks back in the nursery." John nodded, made sense in a weird sort of way. "All I need to do now is expel it." He pronounced happily and with an insane sort of glee that could only be experienced by a madman.
Which said something since John was feeling rather giddy himself.
Then the Doctor began hopping and bouncing around. He shook his arms like noodles and John couldn't hide the growing smile on his face as he watched the Doctor 'expel' the x-rays.
"If I concentrate," He announced, "I can shake the radiation out of my body and into one spot." He shook and jumped about a bit more for good measure before suddenly announcing the current location of the radiation, "It's in my left shoe!" John stifled a giggle as the man lifted his leg and began to shake his left foot widely, "Here we go, here we go, easy does it..." Suddenly he threw his head back, still shaking his left foot, and began to grunt in pain.
"Ow, ow!" He repeated for each and every shake or jump or bounce, "Aha! It is, it is, it is-!" He was kicking out his foot now, full extent. John had to actually back-up to avoid being hit, "It is hot." He shouted before suddenly twisting his head drastically to one side. John inched a bit closer, "Ah-" the Doctor gasped, "Hold on!"
Suddenly the Doctor was ripping off his left shoe, throwing open the yellow bin, and hurling the red Converse inside with a thick resounding thud.
John blinked, both men staring at the other.
"You're mad." John told him, "You do realize that, right?"
The Doctor inhaled sharply through his nose and looked down at his mismatched feet.
"Right." He agreed looking back up at John, "I look daft with one shoe."
He then ripped off his other Converse and flung it in the yellow bin right with the other.
The Doctor grinned broadly, "Barefoot on the moon!" He exclaimed with a loud clap of his teeth. He then took a deep breath and marched right over to the Slab on the floor.
"Solid leather, all the way through." The Doctor pinched the leather and John copied him. He was right; John could feel it was solid leather, from one side to the other. "Someone has got one hell of a fetish." The alien joked before standing straight again and looking about.
"Florence. "John input, "Where do you think she is?"
"My sonic screwdriver."
John shot around, and saw that the Doctor was holding his, or what used to be his, Sonic Screwdriver. It was burnt out at one end and completely broken. John thinned his lips and stood up, moving around the Slab slowly, as if it would awake from the dead and eat him whole.
"It's-" John tried, only to be interrupted again.
"My sonic screwdriver!" He exclaimed more loudly, clearly peeved. John watched him as he gently stroked the side of the small device, "I loved my sonic screwdriver." He whined pitifully, obviously distressed.
"It can be fixed?" John tried.
The Doctor looked from his screwdriver, to John, then back to his screwdriver.
"Nope."
Then the Doctor shrugged and tossed it carelessly over his shoulder, leaving John to fumble for it uselessly before catching it between the palms of his hands with a soft clap.
If this was alien tech, and John was positive that it was, it shouldn't be just tossed about for anyone to find. Who knows what could happen?
"Right now, what were you saying about the Slab?" The Doctor blinked innocently at John, who was promptly scowling at the Time Lord and twitching his nose in exasperation.
"First of all," John ground out, pointing the burnt out screwdriver at the crazy alien's chest, "Don't leave your alien toys lying around. Dispose of them properly so you don't change the future of the entire human race by littering." John held out the screwdriver for the Doctor to take, the same Doctor who was smiling a madman-smile right at John again. The Doctor seemed almost fond of him, like a man would be fond of his dog when he'd just done something rather cute and pointless.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing." The Doctor sniffed, still smiling, although he was trying to stifle it now, "You can, uh-" He lamely flapped his fingers at John, "Hold it for me, yeah? I'll 'dispose of it properly' when we're back on Earth."
John had the distinct impression the Doctor was humouring him, and decided to move on and change the subject to something far less embarrassing.
"Anyway. What are we going to do about Florence? She's plasmavore right? What's that mean? Why did she want to drink my blood?"
The Doctor sighed and crossed his arms, rubbing his chin with his right hand, "If she can assimilate your blood, mimic the morphology, she can register as human." The Doctor explained, "Now that we know what she is, we know what do."
"We do?"
"We've got to find her and show the Judoon what she is." He slapped his fist into his open hand and grinned triumphantly, "Come on!" He called as he dashed out of the lab, barefoot and all.
xxx
John crouched in front of the Doctor, peering down the long hallway, watching the another Slab walk by.
"That's the thing about them." the Doctor whispered, "Slabs always travel in pairs."
"Fascinating." John replied before suddenly turning around and facing the Doctor, "What about you though?"
"Me?" The Doctor squeaked.
"Yeah, you're facing an army of Judoon, without any pre-prepared back-up, and a plasmavore. You haven't a partner or something? Companion to help you?" 'Enabler' went unsaid.
Suddenly the Doctor's gaze was focused solely on John, and John felt his ears flush.
"Sorry, sorry." He flustered, "That's-that's personal. I shouldn't have said anything." He stumbled, "It wasn't- I'm sorry. I-"
"Rose."
John stopped and turned around to face the Doctor again. He was looking at the ground now, rubbing his fingers between each other, "Her name was Rose Tyler. Lost her." John nodded, understanding.
"Not dead." The Doctor quickly corrected, "She's with her family, just… lost. Never gonna see her again."
John looked to the floor, "I-"
Suddenly the Doctor was standing and striding past him, "Come on!" He called, changing the subject. He was about to go striding down the hall, but instead there was a sudden light in the Doctor's face and a Judoon was a hair's breadth away.
"Non-Human." It grunted.
The Doctor's eyes widened comically as he reached for John, hauled him to his feet, and quickly led them away from the Judoon reading their blasters and taking fire.
"And again!' the Doctor huffed as they just barely rounded a corner and avoided being fried by space rhinos. John could already hear the Judoon rushing after them, but then they bolted right into a stair well and they climbed down, going back the way the Judoon had come.
They emerged in a corridor that looked like it'd been through hell and back. Pictures were crashed on the ground and people were huddled together in hallways, gasping for air. John hadn't really even noticed the lack of oxygen, but then, he was also running on adrenalin…
John spotted one of the Medical Students he happened to like a lot, Martha Jones, helping one of the older handicapped seniors with an oxygen tank. She was sort of his unofficial protégé, and seeing her here, at the hospital on her off day, made him both very proud and very angry.
"Martha!" he called as he jogged towards her, brushing past the Doctor with a quick apology before sinking to his knees beside her, "Are you okay?" He was going to go for worry instead.
She gawked at him, "Your leg-! It's-"
"Another time, Martha." Truthfully, John had totally forgotten about his limp until she mentioned it, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, but there's not a lot of air left. Not enough for all these people at least." She gestured to the patients strung along the walls, huddling in corners.
Trying to breathe on the moon - not working out very well.
"Are you okay?" John hadn't even noticed the Doctor hovering next to him until the alien's hand was on his shoulder, checking to see if John would pass out from oxygen deprivation or not.
John nodded at the Time Lord, "Yeah. Running on adrenaline." John pushed himself back to his feet after comfortingly patting Martha on the shoulder. She then continued with the woman in front of her, leaving John and his new friend to do whatever it was they needed to do. Right now, she lacked the focus to do anything more than be comforting to the patients lining the halls and her coworkers slowly suffocating.
"What about the Judoon?" John eventually questioned as the two of them continued walking down the hall.
"Ah, great big lung reserves, it won't slow them down."
John nodded and grimaced, "So then, what do you think Florence was doing on earth?"
The Doctor spared John a small glance before turning back to the hallway around them, "Hiding. On the run." He sighed, "Kinda like Ronald Biggs in 'Rio de Janeiro'. The question is, what's she doing now? She's still not safe." He stuffed his hands in his pockets, "The Judoon could execute us all." He waved his hand dismissively, "Come on!" And then they continued running down the hall. Not at their previous pace, but still something fast enough to keep John's adrenaline up.
xxx
John paced the hall, going from one side to the other. He had no idea what he was going to do or how he was going to do it. He was just a doctor, not even a soldier anymore. Too broken for that, yeah, he was probably one of the worst bloody people for the job.
The Doctor had told John that he had to hold off the Judoon as long as he possibly could before leading the space rhinos to the MRI room to turn the "alien" into their custody. Whether that alien would be the actual plasmavore or not was the big question, but John trusted the Doctor to have a plan. What John didn't trust, was his own ability to hold off the Judoon. What was he going to say to them? Stop please?
And then the Judoon rounded the corner and began marching towards John at a sedate yet purposeful pace that was usually associated with a military squadron. John inhaled sharply before dashing towards the group of Judoon.
"Oi! Stop!" John shouted as he pushed out his arms in front of himself, "Stop!" He barked again, right in the leaders face. The head rhino didn't seem too perturbed by this, and just shined that scanner in John's eyes.
"Human." It grunted, roughly grabbing John's right hand and bringing it closer to eye level so he could mark a crude black 'X' on the back of his hand. They were about move on, but then John jumped back in front of the rhinos.
"Wait!" John yelled again, spreading his arms out wide. The Judoon commander just grabbed John's shoulder and pushed him roughly out of the way and right into the wall.
"But I've got information about the alien you're after!" John pleaded as he pushed himself away from the wall, getting ready to dash back in front of the Judoon Captain again.
He didn't have to though.
The Judoon squad had all, simultaneously, stopped moving and then turned towards John with a sort of searching look - that they didn't quite believe that John could possibly have any useful information. John inhaled and sharply marched over to the Judoon Captain for a third time and crossed his arms.
"I've got information you need." John declared bravely, "And I will tell you if…" John paused momentarily, remembering that he had to hold the Judoon off for as long as possible. "-if you give me one of your blasters." That should hold them for a while. No soldier in his right mind would give a civilian his weapon.
The Judoon snorted right in John's face, forcing his hair to fly all over the place, before roughly shoving his blaster (the thing weighed a ton!) into John's chest. The force of it knocked John back several steps, before the doctor could finally regain his footing.
"You will tell me your information." The Judoon demanded.
John blinked once, startled, he wasn't actually expecting that to work…
"She's a plasmavore." John began hesitantly, managing to shift the blaster to his left hand, "She's with a friend." John nodded, "Yep, a friend of mine. And she's in a room."
The Judoon snapped John up against the wall and lifted him three or more feet in the air, before wrenching the blaster out of John's hands (he'd a very feeble grip on the gun, otherwise the rhino would have never been able to disarm John so easily) and shoving it underneath his chin.
"Specify or you will die."
That left no room for argument, so John jerked his head towards the right room before gasping out, "MRI room." It was really the only thing he could say with as little air he had available, but, luckily for John, it was enough for the space rhino.
The Captain released John and led his squad down the hall, heading right for the MRI room, blaster and all.
John watched them leave, leaning against the wall and just breathing. He needed a moment, several moments, but he didn't have that. The job still wasn't done. So John heaved a sigh and made to follow them to the MRI room, running down there as fast as he could go. He had to make sure that Florence was taken care of and the Doctor was left alone.
When a light flared, and the sound of static reverberated off the walls, John knew something (or someone) had been shot, and John double-timed it to the MRI room. The Doctor, much to John's concern, was unconscious and on the floor, while Florence and her Slab were nowhere to be seen.
Immediately John rushed to the Doctor's side, pressing his ear against the Doctor's chest, but he heard nothing. His hearts weren't beating.
"What happened?" John demanded the nearest Judoon, "What'd you do?"
There wasn't a response, the Judoon just looked at him and then the Doctor, and then led his men out of the room.
"Fine!" John shouted, "Screw you!"
And then he turned back to the Doctor and checked his pulse again, but on his wrist this time.
"Doctor?" He managed, albeit his voice was strangled with emotion.
There wasn't a pulse.
The Doctor was dead.
John blinked, wiping furiously at his eyes with the back of his hand.
The Doctor wasn't going to die, John decided. Not after everything he'd done to save them from the Judoon, and the moon, and whatever else he'd done before John had even found him in the hospital.
John growled angrily, a determined set in his brow; and placed his hands over the Doctor's right heart, one over the other, and started CPR.
He pumped once, twice, three times, and four; before suddenly pinching the Time Lord's nose with one hand and tilting his head back with the other as he lowered his mouth to the Doctor's and breathed – one and two. Breathed – one and two.
John sat back and then went to start pumping again; one hand over the other, splayed out over the Doctor's left heart this time and started pumping again. One, two, and three and four. John shifted his hands, starting again with the right heart, only vaguely aware that the hospital appeared to be back on earth, And one and two, three, four.
John ignored the people outside the little bubble John had created between him and the outside world – nothing else existed for John but the Doctor. He wasn't aware of anything going on behind him, ignoring even a passing nurse futilely trying to get his attention.
Left: One, two, three, four.
Right: One, two, three, four.
Breathe: One and Two. (Should he do it again for the second heart?)
Left and Right. Breathe. Breathe. Left and Right.
John wasn't sure how much time had passed, but it was long enough for the mindless noise outside the MRI room to die down, and for the nurse to quadruple spontaneously and mutate into paramedics and a Mycroft with an umbrella.
"-ohn." A soft voice breached John's bubble as he Left, Right. Breathe and Breathe. Left, Right and Breathe. Breathe. Left, Right. Breathe and Breathe.
"John." And a hand was on his shoulder, snapping him out of his zone. John was suddenly aware of the vast ache in his chest and the strain in his arms. His knees were crying for reprieve, and he was developing muscle spasms in his lumbar back.
"What Mycroft?" John hissed, and went back to pumping; he'd almost lost his rhythm for a second there.
"The man you're working on is gone, John. Let him go."
John shook his head, "Not yet." Breathe and Breathe.
"John." Mycroft was sounding patronizing now; and just maybe slightly sympathetic.
"Cortisone." John rushed out between breaths, "Please Mycroft." John had turned to give Mycroft the most desperate expression he could make, "Cortisone." And Mycroft relented, ordering a paramedic to get John everything he ordered.
Not five seconds later, another man was beside him and holding out a hypothermic needle, "5 cc, Cortisone." The medic announced. John shook his head. He'd been doing CPR for who-knew-how-long – 5 cc wasn't going to cut it.
"50 cc, Cortisone." John ordered and he moved to the Right, Breathe, Left, Right-
"50? That'd-"
"50 cc, now!" John barked, and then suddenly it was in his hand, and John wasted no time in jabbing the needle right into the (where John assumed) connecting Aorta vessel - where the two hearts merged together before forming into the pulmonary arteries a little bit later.
As soon as John had removed the needle, the Doctor jerked upright, back arching, as he swallowed and gasped for air. The paramedic immediately backed off, alarmed (It just wasn't possible!), but John stayed close to him. He helped the Doctor roll over onto his side, into the recovery position, and rubbed his back to help calm him down as he tried to refill his lungs with the oxygen they so badly craved.
"What-" The Doctor tried in a raspy voice, but John stopped him.
"Stop talking." John ordered in bluntly, "You just stopped being dead, so give yourself a few minutes."
The Doctor's eyes widened considerably upon learning that he'd been dead only seconds before, "Did I-"
"Oi!" John snapped, "Be quiet and breath."
The Doctor snapped his mouth shut and went back to focusing on the highly challenging task of breathing, and, seeing that he was being obeyed, John began with the explanations, "Florence, don't know if you remember, killed you before the Judoon could get to her." The Doctor didn't seem too surprised by that, he remembered that bit, "The Judoon left after they got her, and I started CPR as soon as I got in here." The Doctor nodded again, understanding, "I don't know how long I was at it –"
"Approximately 17 minutes." Mycroft cut in, re-alerting John to his, and the other paramedics, presence'. John turned back to Mycroft, he was standing about a meter away, and only a single paramedic, the one who'd helped with the Cortisone, remained from earlier.
"Seventeen minutes." The Doctor repeated, surprised that John would keep it up for so long, "Why didn't you stop?"
John turned back towards the Doctor and gripped the alien's shoulder tightly with his left hand.
"Doctor remember?" John reminded as he tapped his own heart with his free hand, "We can't ever stop. We save people."
The Doctor beamed at John, and John couldn't help but grin in return.
.:.
I wonder what episode I should do next? I'm going to start running through old episodes of Doctor Who to find a good one.
Any suggestions?